Votes trickle away from Social Democrats

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The Social Democrats and their allies have fallen more that ten points behind the centre-right opposition, according to the latest opinion poll.

A poll conducted by Temo for Dagens Nyheter suggests that Fredrik Reinfeldt's Moderate Party and its three allies would now get 53.5 percent of the votes if Sweden were to go to the polls today. Prime Minister Göran Persson's Social Democrats, with his allies in the Greens and Left Party together command the support of 42.3 percent of voters.

The Right's lead is now at its biggest since 1991 – the last time that the Social Democrats were beaten in a general election. The Moderates' allies in the Liberal Party are also doing well: the party's 13.5 percent showing is better than it achieved in the 2002 election.

“The stream of voters direct from the Social Democrats to the Moderates is growing,” Temo's Arne Modig told DN, adding that the Liberals were also gaining former Social Democrat supporters.

The Social Democrats, on the other hand, have seen their share of the vote decrease for the third month in a row, leaving the party with 32 percent. The poll paints an even bleaker picture for the Social Democrats' allies. The Greens and the Left Party are each now on 5 percent, which puts them in danger of disappearing off the political map altogether. The Swedish political system requires that parties pass a threshold of 3.9 percent of the votes to qualify for a seat in parliament.

The poll also brought disappointment for Gudrun Schyman. Her Feminist Initiative, founded in a blaze of publicity in March, was supported by fewer than two percent of the 2,381 people questioned by Temo.

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